Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Boca Juniors v Estudiantes: La Gran Final

Great expectation for the match between Boca Juniors and Estudiantes de La Plata.

The underdogs (Estudiantes) now look pretty much the favourites considering their outstanding form and will to win things and Boca's terrible form in the last couple of matches.

But Boca is full of players with a lot of experience playing big finals and they will look for them to lead them to victory and get the third straight league title.

Diego SIMEONE is just starting his managerial career and he had a rough start while he was at Racing Club. I think it was more due to the bad conditions in which he had to work at Racing rather than his ability. Plus...Estudiantes have a far better squad than Racing and the addition of Juan Sebastian VERON gave them the extra quality they needed.

After losing in the last Copa Libertadores on penalties against Sao Paulo in Brazil, EL CHOLO have built a team with a strong personality that resembles him.

When the two teams met in the 5th week of the season, Boca defeated Estudiantes with goals from the usual suspects: Martin PALERMO and Rodrigo PALACIO.

Estudiantes were going through a rough run in the league and didn't record a win in four games. But from week 8 on, they won the amazing 10 straight matches (including a big 7-0 thrashing of local rivals Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata).

That run was stopped in the week before the last and have not been for that last-minute strike by Argentinos Juniors' Choy GONZALEZ, they would have been champions last week when they defeated Arsenal de Sarandi while Boca were losing their second straight game (at home against Lanus. )

Estudiantes will be missing striker Jose Luis CALDERON (suspended) and the match will kick-off at 17:20 Buenos Aires (20:20 London) at Velez Sarsfield's Jose Amalfitani Stadium.

Hopefully I'll get some coverage on Dubai Sports at 23:20 Doha time! I will be watching!

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